Skip Counting Game and Mastercard Winner

I’d like to start today’s post off by thanking everyone who participated in my Mastercard Giveaway.  I appreciate you so much!  Without further ado, the winner is….

Vicky Hunt! 

Congratulations, Vicky!  Be on the lookout for an email from me.

Now for today’s post -
I teach 3rd grade so my kids mostly come to me knowing how to count quarters. But as you know, there’s always one or two who aren’t fluent skip counters.  I learned a quick little activity at a recent math conference that should help.  I got this idea from Wendy Hill from The Learning Carpet.  The game is like the math version of playing Sparkle and is a great time filler for when your class is lined up ready to go somewhere but you have a few minutes to spare.

Pretend like this is my class (scary but some years are like that).  We’re waiting in line before going to lunch.

My little monsters start calling out numbers.  The Purple Monster yells out 25, then the Neanderthal mumbles 50, Green Dude says 75, and then Zombie Kid dejectedly mutters $1 because he has to go to the end of the line.

The kid who never faces front, Green  monster, starts the count over with 25.  And, the game continues until you run out of monsters kids or run out of time.

Variations
Why not do this with other counting skills? 

• Count single-digit odd numbers and whoever says 9 goes to the end. 
• Skip count multiples of 3, 4, 6, etc.  You will need to decide which number causes a kid to go to the end of the line.  In the beginning, you could start off small then add more multiples as the kids improve.  Example: start off with 3, 6, 9, and have kids go to the end of the line on 12.
• Skip count fractions – my kiddos have trouble with this one.  Since I teach 3rd graders, I would have mine count 1/4, 1/2, 3/4, and go to the end on 1 or the next consecutive whole number.

Have any of you ever played this game before?  How did it go?

Have a great day!

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